The Latest from Iran (25 March): Expanding the Sanctions

Tehran University academic Seyed Mohammad Marandi presents the regime line against expanded sanctions over Iran's alleged human rights violations

See also Iran Special: The 17 Leading Officials in New EU Sanctions for Human Rights Abuses
The Latest from Iran (24 March): Putting Out the Propaganda

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2000 GMT: Sanctions Watch. The US Government has given Sri Lanka, which is heavily dependent on Iranian oil imports, a waiver from sanctions for six months.

The Minister of Petroleum Industries, Susil Premajayantha, said the US had accepted that Colombo would reduce its supplies of Iranian crude by 15% this year.

Sri Lanka has imported as much as 93% of its annual crude oil requirements from Iran.

1925 GMT: After a report this week that it had signed a $130 million contract with Tehran for a surveillance system (see separate feature), ZTE Corp, China's second-largest telecommunications equipment maker, said it will "curtail" its business in Iran.

A spokesman said ZTE had decided "some time ago" to "shrink" its business in Iran, although he said the company had not yet decided on the details: "It's still being discussed."

1815 GMT: CyberWatch. The Next Web offers insight into the state of the Internet in Iran, by summarising how many of the top websites are blocked.

About 27% of the Top 100 sites in various categories, as measured by the Internet directory Alexa, are filtered. More than half of the Arts sites cannot be accessed, and 32% of news sites --- including BBC News, The Guardian, Fox News, The Huffington Post, and The New York Post are blocked, although CNN, Reuters, The New York Times, and Bloomberg can still be reached.

Among "Society" sites, 31% are blocked, as are 27% of those concerned with Shopping.

1635 GMT: Subsidy Cuts Watch. Anticipating the delayed introduction of the second phase of its subsidy cuts, the Government has added 28,000 tomans (about $15) to the monthly support payments to individuals to cover higher prices.

Members of Parliament have challenged the 50% increase in the support payment as illegal.

The Government launched the first phase of subsidy cuts in December 2010. It announced a year later that the second phase was imminent, but has yet to implement reductions.

1525 GMT: Oil Watch. Industry sources say Royal Dutch Shell is struggling to pay off $1 billion that it owes Iran for crude oil because European Union and US financial sanctions now make it almost impossible to process payments.

The debt is equivalent to about four large tanker loads of Iranian crude (8 million barrels).

0950 GMT: CyberWatch. Iran's Civil Defense Organization has announced that cyber-defense units will be launched in some universities.

0930 GMT: Where's Mahmoud? President Ahmadinejad is on a three-day visit to Tajikistan. He is participating in the third International Nowruz Celebrations, with colleagues from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Tajikistan, and speaking with senior officials.

0656 GMT: Warning of the Day. Fars has interpreted the recent speech by the Supreme Leader about relations with the US, the "West", and Israel: "The Islamic Republic's reply to threats will be more complicated than [incidents in] India and Thailand."

In February, an attack in Delhi injured the wife of an Israeli diplomat and three others. An assault in Bangkok failed when the grenade blew up, injuring an assailant. Both operations were linked to Iranians.

Fars added this paraphrase of Ayatollah Khamenei, "The Islamic Republic will not remain silent over the Western hidden war against its nuclear programme."

0649 GMT: Protesting War. About 1000 people gathered at Habima Square in Tel Aviv in Israel on Saturday to demonstrate against war between Israel and Iran.

0645 GMT: We open this morning with a special feature, "The 17 Leading Officials in New EU Sanctions for Human Rights Abuses". Those named included the head of judiciary, Sadegh Larijani; the Minister of Communications, Reza Taghipour; the Supreme Leader's representative to the armed forces, Ali Saeedi; and the head of State broadcaster IRIB, Ezzatollah Zarghami.